Tara ,'Storyteller'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Huh, I will have to keep an eye out for this NapaStyle thing.
Damn it, Grandma, why'd you have to go and feud with that branch of the family? I could be getting free meals or cookbooks or something.
I've tried the smashing garlic with a knife thing, and I just can't do it. Pretty much anything that involves using the flat of a blade is beyond me.
Make sure it's a big enough blade. Then whack the shit out of it.
I'm a big fan of whacking garlic to peel it. Very therapeutic.
With nice new knives, I think I'm willing to be a little more lenient on this matter, though I'm more interested in Hec's final-mash technique.
Note to self: if you ever host a dinner party, only do it for those friends who don't know how to cook.
No no no, shrift. You bribe a friend who knows how to cook into helping you with the dinner party, then either remain nicely mum on the subject of who actually cooked, or deflect compliments to you by pointing out your enduring wisdom in choosing the right person to actually cook.
Pretty much anything that involves using the flat of a blade is beyond me.
1. Place clove on cutting board.
2. place knife above clove, resting on it, holding knife by handle with your regular cutting hand (with sharp end pointing away from you).
3. Make fist with other hand (or use the palm of your hand) and SMACK THAT BLADE.
Alternatively:
Find heavy pot. Smash garlic with pot. Smash, garlic, smash. Good garlic. Yum!
if you ever host a dinner party, only do it for those friends who don't know how to cook.
Or make the food before they get there to ensure they won't sneer at your technique or choice of ingredients!
If you don't smash the garlic with a knife, how do you peel it? The rolling-between-your-hands technique is painful, and those garlic-peely devices always get lost in my house.
I think -t has the magic garlic press that peels the clove for her...
I am not a cooking snob. Unless it involves green chile. I'm too lazy to be. Dinner 75% of the work week? Marinated chicken and a salad. I'm really not picky about food either. Unless it involves green chile or mexican food.
though I'm more interested in Hec's final-mash technique
That would be Jacques Pepin's technique, not mine. But the idea is simply that garlic has volatile oils and by smashing the chopped cloves you release the oils. (Moreso than just with chopping.) You do it at the end right before you put the garlic in your recipe because volatile oils evaporate very quickly.
Sometimes if I'm doing a lot of prep before hand I'll do the garlic and put it into a little olive oil so I don't lose the garlicky oils.
I'm not against the garlic press, actually. If you do it right over the pan you're not going to lose any juice.